Midweek: Jesmond Vale & Sandyford 7K

Four full rest days after the 10K and I finally got back to running today. And after 4 days of moderately cool weather, I chose one hell of a day to do it; running at lunchtime in 23°C heat. Anyway, having achieved a major goal, I felt the pressure was off regarding pace or any other measure or achievement, so just went out to enjoy the run.

Again, it was a run from the office and I actually had a sense of what I wanted to do today; or rather, where I wanted to go: Jesmond Vale. It feels like quite a while since I last went that way (turns out the last time was the end of March) and I remember it being beautiful in the sunshine. And even just generally a pretty nice part of Newcastle to run in. This time though, I wanted to go further into the vale, up to the point where it becomes Jesmond Dene. (When is a vale not a vale? When it's a ...dene?) So, a longer run than the 6K runs I did back in March, but after doing a 10K, really, how long is 7K? Not that long.

So, despite the heat, it wasn't actually that tough a run. The cloud cover actually made it easier than the 10K, never baking in the sun. In Jesmond Vale itself, I chose to run on the east side rather than the west side that I know better. Ultimately, that meant that I was running mostly on roads rather than through trees and across grassy areas, but c'est la vie. By the time I got to Jesmond Dene and the Cradlewell Bypass, the lack of pressure was underlined by having a brief pause to consider the return direction: just turn around, or run back through the trees on the west side of the vale, or climb up to the Armstrong Bridge, cross that and return via Sandyford. The last of those won, which meant what should've been a punishing ascent onto the bridge, but actually, it wasn't bad.

From there, the run back to the office was much less pleasant, but on the up-side, not just a repeat of what I'd done on the outbound leg. And by the time I was approaching the Northumbria University School of Design, I had a final choice to make: how to cross the central motorway. In the end, the 55° North route won it, for a very simple reason: it gave me an excuse to get an ice cream from the ridiculously tiny Caffe Ginevra on Pilgrim Street. It was a tasty way to end the run, but by god, the size of a single-scoop cone meant it was quite a while before I could get a shower. 😂

Yum! Kinder Bueno flavour gelato. 😋


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